The stock market is off 19% over the past 12 months, but there is a positive side to this: The Forbes Cost of Living Extremely Well Index, or CLEWI, a kind of Consumer Price Index for the very rich, rose by only 2.8%. Net out today's wimpy inflation rate, and the real cost of our market basket of luxury goods is up just 1.3%

Even better, several items in the CLEWI declined in price. For example, the average cost for a thoroughbred yearling at July's Keeneland Summer Select sale, $487,184, is down 32%. Horse prices this low haven't been seen since 1998, when the Standard & Poor's 500 index was below 1,000.

John Sparkman, blood stock and sales editor at Thoroughbred Times, notes that the death of two of the biggest sires, Seattle Slew and Mr. Prospector, meant there were fewer qualified horses to command a premium price. Demand also dropped with the death of Saudi Prince Ahmed, one of the three biggest buyers, and principal owner of this year's Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem. "It's a very small exclusive market. There was roughly $25 million less spent this year," says Sparkman.

Several of the imported items in our luxury index became dearer. The key reason: Over the past year the U.S. dollar fell 7% against 18 currencies, as measured by the J.P. Morgan Currency Index. In fact, the index item with the biggest jump in price: a pair of U.K.-made James Purdey & Sons shotgun, up 23%, to $141,000. Custom-made John Lobb black calfskin wingtip shoes, also from the U.K., rose 8%, to $2,692. And a 55-centimeter duffel bag from Louis Vuitton cost U.S. shoppers $740, up 4%. "When the dollar falls more than 10% against the euro, we have to make price adjustments," explains Claus Dietrich Lahrs, president of Louis Vuitton North America.

What about recreation? A 50 meter, Olympic-sized, in-ground tiled pool from Mission Pools is $963,000, before landscaping costs, the same price as last year. And a tennis court built by Putnam Tennis and Recreation of Plainville, Conn., is unchanged in price, at $55,000.

Transportation also remains a relative bargain for the well-heeled. The sticker on a 9-passenger Learjet, $6.8 million, is only 1% above its 2001 level. A Rolls Royce Silver Seraph, the last of the models developed by Rolls as an independent company, is unchanged at $229,990.

If you prefer traveling by water, a Hatteras 75 motor yacht, goes for $3.1 million, unchanged from last year, and a Nautor's Swan 68 sailboat lists for $2 million, also unchanged over 2001.

Of course those individuals who can actually afford items in the CLEWI probably need not be reminded that one should never pay retail.

Thoroughbred yearling

2001: $710,247

2002: $487,184

-31.4%

Demand dropped after the death of Saudi Prince Ahmed, one of the world's big buyers.

7-pound filet mignon

2001: $189

2002: $203

+7.4%

Fewer farmers are producing the prime meat, so prices are fattening up.

Case of Dom Perignon

2001: $1,500

2002: $1,427

-4.9%

Hangover from millennium hype is pushing prices down to pre-2000
levels.

Kilo of beluga caviar

2001: $2,700

2002: $3,000

+ 11.1%

Belugas are hard to find--and may be illegal to bring to the U.S. in the future, (see Caviar Emptor).

Learjet Model 31A

2001: $6,525,000

2002: $6,600,000

+ 1.1%

As Learjet promotes its new 45A, there is lukewarm demand for the older model.

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